Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs ’Like a playground should be?’ Experiencing and Producing Bi Subjectivities in Bisexual Space. Thesis How to cite: Bowes-Catton, Helen Talitha (2016). ’Like a playground should be?’ Experiencing and Producing Bi Subjectivities in Bisexual Space. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2015 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000c67a https://helenbowescatton.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/helen_bowes_thesis.pdf Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk ‘Like a playground should be?’ Experiencing and producing bi subjectivities in bisexual space by Helen Talitha Bowes-Catton B.A. Hons, MSc. A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Psychology in Social Sciences The Open University 30 June 2015 1 Abstract Much recent work on bisexual subjectivities has taken a discourse analytic approach to exploring how bisexual identity is discursively produced as paradoxical, and why it is so difficult to articulate a culturally intelligible bisexual subjectivity. This thesis responds to such work by suggesting that a move towards a multi-modal methodological approach, with a focus on the features of the lifeworld, might enable participants to articulate accounts of bisexual subjectivity as experienced in material, spatial, embodied, temporal, and intersubjective, terms. Accordingly, the thesis asks the question ‘how are bisexual subjectivities experienced and produced in bisexual spaces?’ Fieldwork was conducted at a BiCon, UK bisexual convention, in 2008, and the data presented here is based on the results of two studies which used creative and visual methods (photography, mapping, and modelling) to elicit discourse about lived experiences of bisexual subjectivity in a bisexual space, and how these related to everyday life. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was taken to the analysis of the data produced. The study argues that the everyday bisexual subject, as constructed in dominant cultural discourses, can be theorised as a Trickster figure, characterised by excess and inauthenticity. BiCon, meanwhile, can be theorised as a heterotopic place-event, during which bisexuality is held constant as the default sexual identity within the space. This provides BiCon attendees with an opportunity to temporality resolve the paradox of bisexual subjectivity. For some participants, BiCon serves as a carnivalesque space where they can enjoy a brief respite from the contradictions of bisexuality. For others, BiCon is a place to gather resources for personal and social transformation. i Acknowledgements I began my PhD in late 2005. Tony Blair was still Prime Minister, Prince Charles had just married Camilla Parker-Bowles, the ban on fox-hunting had just come into force, and Doctor Who had just been revived. David Cameron had just become leader of the Conservative Party, no one yet knew what happened at the end of Harry Potter, and I’d never owned a phone with a colour screen, let alone a camera or internet access. What I’m saying is, it’s been a while. This means that I owe my thanks to a lot of people, so I hope you’re sitting comfortably. First of all, I owe a huge debt of thanks to the UK bi community, who have supported and enabled this research since its inception. Jen Yockney and Grant Denkinson have both been excellent sources of information, advice and encouragement, and I am indebted to Grant for introducing me to the concept of the TAZ. Marcus Morgan’s work with the Bisexual Index has been enormously helpful too. I am of course particularly grateful to Ian Watters, Natalya Dell and the rest of the BiCon 2008 team for allowing me to conduct fieldwork during the event, and for not only good-naturedly putting up with endless queries and requests for information in the seven years since, but for endless practical and technical help. Thanks, too, to the members of the UK Bi Activists email list (particularly the late great Lawrence Brewer, whose work ‘W(h)ither Bisexuality’ was an early inspiration), to the BiCon LiveJournal community, and to everyone at the London BiFests who took part in pilot studies. My thanks go, too, to my former students and colleagues at Wootton Upper School and in the Social Sciences Department of Luton Sixth Form College, particularly to John ‘Rambo’ Ramm and John ‘Barnacles’ Read, for their support, encouragement and understanding of a colleague who was juggling far too many plates for far too long. Simon Sotiris, Liz Brookes, Ian Mansfield, Ross Purves and Tania Malkani provided therapeutic coffee-and-ranting sessions, victory stances, mockery, career advice, sympathy and empathy between them. I have been privileged to work alongside a number of superb academics over the last decade, and I am particularly grateful to my erstwhile postgrad colleagues at LSBU, Lilliana Del Busso, Anamika Majumdar, Chris Carmona (who introduced me to Bakhtin’s carnival), Laura McGrath and Allan Tyler for their comradely support. I am also grateful to Tam Sanger, Ange Cassidy, and Sandra Hopkins, Camel Gupta, George Voss, Bina Radia- Bond, Caroline Walters, Nikki Hayfield, Surya Monro and Sue George for their insights and encouragement. Rebecca L. Jones has been a vital sounding board and a ceaseless source of encouragement in so many ways, as well as a dear friend. Christina Richards has been ii an excellent co-author and a helpful editor. Alex Iantaffi, thank you for teaching me about holding the paradox, and for introducing me to PCP. At the Open University, I am grateful to the Psychology department for taking a chance by hiring a lecturer who hadn’t quite finished her PhD, and for the time and space that I’ve been given to complete writing up. Stephanie Taylor has been an invaluable support to me, first as my third party supervisor, and then as my research mentor, and I am slowly compiling a list of her wise sayings. Suzanne Wilkins, Lisa Gatley, Nicola Ambrose and Emily Smith have been enormously helpful as I’ve oriented myself within the department and university. On a personal note, I am immensely grateful for the support, love, and patience of my family, partners and friends. I am grateful to my excellent co-parent James Whitehouse for fieldwork support, late-night pep talks, road trips and for so many conversations about Trickster figures. My wonderful mother-in-law Hazel Catton (III) has stepped into the breach more times than I can count, and has given me the time and space to write on many occasions. My sister Carol Morris’ encouragement and belief in me has helped far more than she realises. I am enormously grateful to my parents, Alan and Jean Bowes, for their continual encouragement, support, guidance, practical help and love. Specifically, in recent years I have had cause to be particularly grateful for Mum’s eagle-eyed proof-reading, and for Dad’s enthusiasm for trolling the staff in Waterstone’s by playing the innocent pensioner, then requesting obscure books on niche sexualities. Paul Mabbs’s calm and steadying presence in my life over the last three years has been an enormous source of strength. Jacq Applebee has been a huge supporter of this research, and has taught me a great deal about writing, activism and life (properly explained). She’s also excellent to take naps with. Julia Wayment also has well-honed nap skills, has kept me (mostly) sane, and has provided endless practical and emotional support- I’m so grateful to have her in my life. Lisa Aubrey’s friendship and support has been invaluable to me. And everyone should have a next-door neighbour like Ranjana Das. The ineffable Kaye McLelland has been a fellow-traveller with me in so many ways, and I look forward to our post-thesis world-domination attempts. Jennifer Moore has helped me think through tricky issues and ‘find ways’ on many, many occasions, and I have learnt much from her shrewd insights. Kathie Davis-Bater and Esther Saxey, Christopher-Lizzie Jeffcoat, Joel Marks, Emma Felber, Kirsten Hearn, Phil Maynard, and Mary Langridge-Button have always supported and encouraged me. Eirwen Edwards changed me for the better in many ways. Mike and Wendy Clarke have been inspiring and encouraging. Thanks, too to Jackie Kilby-Rawcliffe for Godel’s incompleteness theorem, and for making higher education seem like a good idea in the first place. Huge thanks, too, to my Fairy Godmother, for her help in ensuring I didn’t have to move house during the final months of this thesis. My GP, Jane Cross, has done a huge amount to enable my work, by helping me to proactively manage my health. iii I have been beyond fortunate in my supervisory team. Gillian Rose’s methodological and geographical expertise, and her kindness, have had a huge impact on this thesis. Paula Reavey’s humour and openness, and incisive yet gentle critiques, have been invaluable. I have it on good authority that my recent demonstration of my ability to down a pint faster than Prof. Reavey is evidence that I am now ready to graduate. Meg John Barker has gone far above and beyond the call of duty in supervising and advocating for this thesis, and has been enormously generous with their time and support. I am hugely grateful to my research participants for their time, insights, and willingness to share their experiences with me.